General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCongress’ Big Spending Bill Covers Bullets, Cow Farts, and Chinese Chickens
Barring any last-minute glitches admittedly, no small concern the House of Representatives will vote sometime Thursday on an omnibus spending bill that takes the place of 11 out of the 12 appropriations bills that Congress, were it working under regular order, would have produced this year.
The 1,603-page bill, which was only made public late Tuesday, will fund the majority of the government through the end of this fiscal year in September. The exception is the Department of Homeland Security, which will be funded by a temporary continuing resolution (CR) so that Republicans, when they have control of both houses of Congress in January, can try to stymie President Obamas executive order on immigration.
Related: Last-Minute Changes Could Derail Spending Bill
The combination of an omnibus spending bill and a continuing resolution has led to the coining of the word CRomnibus to describe the current bill. And if that sounds like some sort of mutant monster, well, its probably fitting.
The bill, or some version of it, has to pass to avoid a government shutdown. So, naturally, members of Congress have festooned it with pet demands and policy prescriptions that, under other circumstances, might never get a floor vote.
Some of the provisions, including a move to gut the limits on campaign donations that wealthy individuals can give to political parties and another to loosen restrictions barring federally insured banks from making risky derivatives trades, got significant public attention on Wednesday.
Here are some others that may have escaped notice:
Bullets
When House Republican leadership held a press conference Wednesday morning, Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) could have chosen any number of elements of the omnibus to highlight. He opted for a provision preventing the Environmental Protection Agency from passing any rule to regulate the lead content of ammunition, ammunition components, or fishing tackle under the Toxic Substances Control Act. He said the threat of such a rule had made it so hard to buy ammo that people cant even find it at Walmart.
White Potatoes
One section of the bill bars the federal Supplemental Nutrition for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program from using funds to exclude or restrict the eligibility of any variety of fresh, whole, or cut vegetables from the program. The provision is a huge win for the potato lobby yes, there is a potato lobby which objected to a proposal earlier in the year to restrict the eligibility of high-starch foods, like white potatoes, from the program.
Risk Corridors
The bill doesnt directly try to defund Obamacare, as many Republicans might have preferred, but it does assault a key part of the bill. Because the law is new, and its outcomes uncertain, insurance companies offering policies under the Affordable Care Act agreed that they would pay back some of their profits if they were unexpectedly high so that competitors whose profits were unexpectedly low could be compensated. The concept, known as risk corridors was eligible for some funding from the federal government, which the omnibus proposal would make illegal.
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